Scorsese, Lucas to restore Kasaravalli’s ‘Ghatashraddha’

CHENNAI: The 1977 national award-winning film Ghatashraddha – directed by Girish Kasaravalli with Meena Kuttappa in the lead – is all set to be restored and has been sent to Italy by the National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC).

Renowned Hollywood filmmakers Martin Scorsese and George Lucas’s The Film Foundation, and the Indian non-profit Film Heritage Foundation have acknowledged the Kannada film as one of the “classic masterpieces of the world as well as Indian cinema” and decided on its restoration.

“Shivendra Singh Dungarpur of the Film Heritage Foundation watched the movie and liked it. He called me and asked if the film could be restored. Since then he has been following it up with the George Lucas and Martin Scorsese Foundation. But when I was informed about this, I was elated,” the 14-time national award winner told DT Next.

Girish added, “Film Heritage Foundation has plans to archive about 200-300 films. However, the government has now merged it with the NFDC, which is a private body. I believe they should have plans chalked for the future.”

Actor Meena Kuttappa, who played the lead in the film was the one to collect the national awards for the Best Feature Film, Best Music and Best Child Artiste in the following year of its release. “The award day coincided with Girish’s wedding day. So, I was in Delhi representing the team and it was a great honour,” she said.

Describing herself as a “one movie-wonder”, Meena reminisced, “Ghatashraddha (The Ritual) is a novel written by my professor UR Ananthamurthy. When Girish graduated from Pune Film Institute, he asked URA to suggest a heroine for the film. I was attending my class at Mysore University when URA sir called me and said Girish felt I would be a perfect fit for the role. It revolves around a young widow in an agraharam. I took permission from my parents and wasn’t inclined to act after that.”

Meena’s son Ashwin is a popular Tamil actor and he told us how life has come full circle in a way. “As a kid, I was a huge fan of Lucas and Spielberg. In fact, I loved Scorcese so much that I shaved my hair into a mohawk in college, after watching Taxi Driver. It feels good when people I have looked up to have selected my mom’s film.”